The Hideout Vacation
by Screwy
Summary: A Buffy Roswell crossover. The Roswelians hide in Sunnydale while the FBI are looking for them, set after Destiny pt2. There they face horrors unimaginable....please review! modified
1. Chapter 1

**Hideout Vacation**

**Disclaimer:** These characters aren't mine; they are property of Jason Katims, Melinda Metz and Joss Whedon. I've only kidnapped them for a while, though sue all you want, you'll only get is an old 2p and a stolen police cone.

**Distribution:** Sure, take it. Just email the URL afterwards please!

**Summary:** Roswell and Buffy crossover, this is set after the Roswell episode Destiny. The gang goes to Sunnydale to wait for until the Pierce thing blows over.

- - - - -

Michael wished it would storm. Then at least once the weather would resemble his own feelings. He felt guilty about killing Pierce, he didn't know why, Pierce was an evil person. It wasn't as if he was following in Mother Teresa's footsteps or something. Michael almost snorted with laughter, but stopped himself. It wasn't an appropriate time to start laughing. He could almost imagine Agent Pierce going around skipping in his FBI suit giving out sweets to children and money to the homeless. Michael bit his lip, hard. If he started laughing now the others would think he's having a nervous breakdown.

They were holed up in an unused cabin, near the woods. The woodwork smelt of rot, the paint was chipped and dirty and overall there was a mouldy damp feeling. It depressed everyone. Maria was opposite him, hugging her knees and dropping off, Liz and Max were doing the whole soulful eyes on each other. Isabel was playing with her hair and changing her clothes to different colours and Alex looked like he was making a new tune to play on his guitar. Sheriff Valenti, Tess and Kyle was whispering quietly in a corner….obviously Kyle was a little freaked out over the past events; he looked very worn out. Everyone did.

Michael's thoughts turned back to Pierce, he still wasn't sure why he was feeling guilty. He tried to kill them, he tortured Max, and he was a crazy, evil, demented and horrible person. But that was the problem, he was still a person, he had his life and it was cut short by him. He killed a man. With every sentence that he thought those four words kept on flashing though his head.

_He was evil…_I Killed a Man..._ He tried to kill Max…_ I Killed a Man…_ He kidnapped Liz…_ I Killed a Man… On and on there was that silent battle in him which would remain unsolved because it's not like he could do anything about it.

Maria stirred, and suddenly sat up. She silently stared at Michael; he looked awful. He just sat there staring into the nothingness, dark circles around his eyes and his jaw muscles clenched. Even a bottle of cedar oil wouldn't make him feel better at this point. She wished she could help, she wished she could make him feel better, even the tiniest bit.

"Michael, you okay?" Michael didn't answer. "Yo, Guerin, you okay?"

At the sound of his last name Michael broke out of his reverie, he smiled weakly at Maria.

"Oh, God! There must be something wrong with you! Isabel! Max! Michael actually smiled! He didn't smirk, he just smile. I didn't even know he could do that!" Maria exclaimed in mock surprise.

Michael chuckled; Maria always had a gift with cheering up people. She was beautiful!

Her hair was curly and long with brown, red and blonde streaks in it. She was wearing a short red skirt with knee high black boots and a black tight thin polo neck. Her hair was loose and she had on deep red lipstick, covered in lip-gloss. Maria had the most amazing lips, when he was little he used to call her goldfish lips but secretly he had longed for them. He wanted to caress and kiss them, he wanted to feel those soft lips on his flesh, and he wanted to lick off all of her lip-gloss, lick by lick until the flavouring of strawberry was all gone.

_ Hmmm he's been staring at me for a while, what does he want?_ Maria thought. _I'll just stare back at him, showing that I cannot be intimidated._ Maria set her jaw and stared back at him. _At least he's easy on the eyes._ Michael was more than easy on the eyes: he was H.O.T (High on Testosterone!!) She fell deep in those dark brown-grey eyes. His eyes spoke volumes. No matter what he said, no matter how much he pushed her away, his eyes always said _Help Me, Love Me, Save me from myself_. His eyes showed his vulnerable soul, which begged for her love.

Underneath his ragged clothes he has an amazing body, muscular but not too much, hard but not too hard. His pouty lips were soft but firm, normally drawn up into a smirk but now emphasised the fact that he was scared to death. Of the people after him and now of himself. Someone once told Maria that she had an almost obsessive compulsion to help people. What probably attracted her to him (apart from the obvious) was that he was a lost little soul that needs a love and attention to over come his hurt and trauma.

Suddenly like lightning, a thought hit her.

"I have a plan!" She announced, a grin smearing over her face. "I have a perfect plan, I have this friend who lives in another town and she's been asking me to meet up with her, so how about we all go there while the Pierce thing dies down."

"What town?" Alex asked. Alex never made instant decisions; he always counted the pros and cons and thought through all of the repercussions of each choice until he finally decided on something. It was both annoying and amazing!

"Sunnydale, California." In the corner of Maria's eye she saw Valenti nervously twitch.

"Uh…Sunnydale? Is that wise? I mean it might look we're running from something."

Max nodded in agreement. "I agree, besides would it be really safe going across the country? We are minors and not to mention alien minors, I'm not so sure."

"Guys this would just what we need, a _good _vacation."

"I'm in." A quiet answer came from the corner. Maria's jaw nearly dropped, this was the last person she expected to agree with her. Normally, if she said the sky was blue, he would say it was pink and yellow with polka dots. Just to be annoying no doubt.

"Thanks Michael, now come on anyone else?"

"Count me in too." Alex said. Maria smiled; she knew Alex would come around.

"Yeah, it'll be fun." Kyle piped up

"I'm still not sure….Tess?" Everyone looked at Tess, she seemed like she was in her own world or something. Maria waved her hand in front of her face;

"Tess? Hello?" Maria snapped her fingers in front of Tess' face.

"What? Yeah I'm fine." Tess muttered. She looked like she hadn't even realised that she was on _Earth_, let alone there with them in an abandoned cabin. "Okay, I'm in."

"Wait a minute, what's your friend's name?" Kyle asked.

"Her name's Willow, Willow Rosenberg. She's like the coolest girl in the world…. apart from you guys of course and Kyle don't even bother to wonder what she looks like because she's in a very loving relationship with a lead guitarist called Oz. Another thing Kyle; even though I can't see you properly, stop sniggering at his name!" Maria poked her tongue out and then resumed to talk to the rest of the group. Her eyes searched them and rested on Liz's deep brown ones. When they were kids Maria always got her way with Liz by pleading, not with words but with her eyes. Maria was doing this just now, Liz was crumbling she could see it. "Liz how about you?"

"Hmmm let's look at this rationally, where is Sunnydale again?"

"California."

"Okay, though that is quite far. Is Willow trustworthy? Is there any reason for us to think she's FBI or anyone against us?"

"No! Willow is totally trustworthy. She's a witch, a good one. She teaches me the magical properties of my Essence oils and stuff."

"Well if aliens exist why not Witches." Liz smiled, "where would we stay?"

"Willow told me about this cabin to rent in the woods by the Sunnydale College. It's clean and neat, not like this one. We could stay there. It has about 4/5 rooms; so we would have to share. It won't cost much, she assured me of that."

"Well since we have all the major issues covered…I think…it's a good idea. I'm game.". Maria did a little happy dance inside her head; there was now only Max, Isabel and Jim to persuade. Isabel shouldn't be that hard, Maria thought, her eyes seem to be lighting up at the thought of her and Alex sharing a room. Max would be the hardest; he's a stubborn little thing.

"Since everybody has agreed to go, I may aswell. One question, does Sunnydale have a lot of sun? I really want to get tanned." Isabel said, absentmindedly picking her nail polish, she was great at acting like she didn't care – she had practiced for a very long time. Maria turned to Max,

"What about you? We can't go without you."

"Well I guess it would be the best thing to do." Max's forehead creased in thought. "Sheriff? We need you to help us with the cover story; this trip can't happen without you."

"Hmm then I guess…I'm out voted." Jim smiled, "yeah this might even be fun." Maria noted that the smile didn't quite reach his eyes, something was up.

"Okay, Sunnydale is a long way from here. Alex, do you have your laptop with you?" Isabel smiled to herself, when did Alex not have his laptop with him?

"Of course I have my laptop, what kind of computer nerd do you take me for!" Alex laughed and handed Maria his most prized possession out of his backpack. Maria, head bent, biting her lip in concentration, didn't say anything for a while. It was strange, some kind of silence hit the cabin as they watched her; fingers flying as she typed (almost as fast as Alex!)

"Right, guys, I've e-mailed Willow and it'll be just a little while before she's replies. She's on the computer more than you are Alex!"

"Oh I highly doubt that." He smiled. He didn't mind being teased about his addiction to the 'net, at a crisis such as this one it always came in handy. Suddenly a beeping sound came from the laptop.

"Its Willow, she's ecstatic! She says I have to e-mail her when we have the details sorted so she can meet us when we arrive."

"We have to talk to your parents first, get their permission. How long will we be staying? Two weeks will do it right? We have to see if anyone owns the cabin you talked about, can you ask Willow to do that?" Jim glanced over at Maria; she was already doing it. "We'll have to pack too…how are we going to get there? We can't take the jeep. What are we going to tell your parents? How much will it cost?" He knew he was asking too many questions but they were needed, they couldn't go before everything was sorted out.

"We can fly to California and Willow can meet us. Before you ask her, boyfriend has a van so we all might be able to fit. It will be a bit squashed but I'm sure it will be okay. We can tell our parents that you wanted to take us on a trip of sightseeing or something. About telling the parents, that's your job Jim; you'll have to think of an excuse to give them." Everyone stared at Maria, nobody had ever seen her efficient before. It was like she turned into Liz or Isabel.

"Okay then, let's go home and pack!" Liz said.

tbc....


	2. Chapter 2

**Sunnydale, California**

"Oh come on Buff, I know you, what's wrong?" Willow looked at her friend worriedly; it was unusual for Buffy to be so quiet on patrol.

There had been hardly any quips while dusting those pesky vamps. Of course, Willow knew what was wrong. The problem came in a dark, hunky, mysterious shape with brooding dark brown eyes and countless leather jackets.

"What? Oh its nothing, I'm fine." Buffy looked at Willow, she knew that the red headed Witch wouldn't fall for it.

"Oh don't give me that! I know what's wrong and it begins with 5 letters. Now come on lets go to the Bronze, The Dingoes are playing tonight, I promised I'd be there for Oz." Willow noted Buffy's even further downcast expression; Willow mentally slapped herself, Angel is usually at the Bronze and that was exactly who Buffy didn't want to see.

"I'll buy you a double chocolate Mocha, with extra whipped cream." Buffy's face lightened. Willow chuckled, chocolate was always a quick way to the Slayers heart.

At the Bronze, Willow thought, is when I will tell them about Maria. They are going to be wary at first but she knew they would all get along great. Willow was stoked; she had been talking to this girl for about 3 years now and in a few days, she's going to see her!!!

The walk to the Bronze wasn't that far; all in all Sunnydale is an incredibly small town. Just as they were turning a corner, something jumped out at them; it was a vampire, a very strong one at that. Buffy fought hard but he seemed to be better.

Willow rushed at him with a stake but he just swatted her like a fly right into a brick wall. Somehow, the vampire, which Willow decided to nickname Beefy, had knocked out Buffy and ran off with her over his shoulder.

"Buffy!!" She screamed. There was no answer.

- - - - - -

Willow ran the rest of the way to the Bronze, frantic; she pushed her way through the swarming masses of lust filled teenagers to a small table near the coffee bar.

There she could see Xander doing something very stupid with Cordelia's whipped cream from her mocha. It looked like he was doing an impression of a pervy Santa Claus, making a beard with the cream and trying to sit her on his lap. Oz was just in deep thought, his head moving to the music of the new band.

Willow ran to them, they obviously could see how distressed she was because they stood up as she arrived and had on 'worry' faces.

"It's Buffy." Willow managed to gasp out. Fear had crawled up her body and was filling up her lungs, choking her to death. "She's gone. A vamp knocked her out and ran off with her over his shoulder." Oz, always knowing what to do, gave willow a huge sip of his mocha. It really did help, like water extinguishing the fire. Willow smiled lovingly at Oz and then returned to the pressing matters at hand.

"I reckon we should speak to the G-Man, he always knows what to do. Maybe there's some kind of prophecy or ritual with the Buffster as the main ingredient." Xander said, unaware of the cream still on his face.

"I agree, but I can't come, my mother made an appointment with our manicurist. Plus I gotta pick up my grandmother later." Xander whispered something into Cordy's ear; her face broke into a little smile. "Fine! Fine! I'll go help. But you owe me on this Xander. Do you know how long it takes to reschedule a manicure appointment?"

"Oz, are you in? We need all the help we can get with this one. I'm getting some seriously bad vibes from this." Xander glanced over at the teenage werewolf, obviously in a world of his own. "Yo Oz, you coming?"

Oz stared at Xander, "yeah, I go where Will goes, plus this place is a bit jammed for me. Xander, before you go to Giles you better wipe your face. Not cool man." Willow smirked as Xander turned bright red and hastily wiped his face in embarrassment.

The Slayerettes opted to go separately, Cordelia and Xander in her car, Willow and Oz in Oz's van.

"Giles is doing some workouts with Faith. Man am I so glad that Faith is here, especially now, with Buffy MIA." Willow glanced at Oz, his face in deep concentration. She wished she could crawl right into that head of his; he was always so deep in thought.

"Yeah, I hope she doesn't batter him up too much if we have some fighting to do." Oz looked over at the self proclaimed Computer Geek. She looked beautiful with her long red hair sweeping down her back.

"Oz! We have to get Angel. He'll want to know as well, plus hopefully he can help."

"Okay, Angel's first, and then Giles." Oz swerved his van to a quiet and desolate street.

This was where Angel lived; his mansion was at the bottom of the street. It's huge, it also seriously needs a paint job. The paint on the mansion was peeling and crumbling off, the shutters were on their last hinges and the gate was rusted through.

'Maybe we can help him when this whole slayer napping was done, by painting his house and ooh, some house warming presents.' Willow looked at her watch; it was 6:45pm, just 15 minutes after Buffy had been taken.

Confidently Willow walked up to Angel's door and pounded on it. The gorgeous and wet looking vampire opened his door. Willow's jaw nearly dropped open. It was a good thing Oz was waiting in the van because he would've been a bit miffed at the drool coming off Willow. Angel had opened his door in a precariously low hanging towel. His wet hair was spiking everywhere from running his hands through it, his abs and very muscled chest was glistening from the shower.

"Willow! What are you doing here? What's wrong?" Angel looked at the Witch curiously.

_Oh, yes_ Willow mentally scolded herself._ Angel is Buffy's, think of Oz, Oz is yours and Angel is Buffy's._ She repeated it in her head as some sort of chant. "Angel we need your help. Buffy got knocked out during patrol. Some vamp knocked her out and carried her off." Angel growled and his face changed out of anger. Willow didn't blink an eye, she just continued on talking. "I did think about following him, but I though it would be safer for me and for Buffy if I just came to you and the guys."

Angel stared at her. _Why isn't she screaming, or cringing or doing something? For gods sakes I killed her fish, I nearly killed her, I did kill Jenny! She should be running away instead of just babbling to me like I'm Xander or something. _He thought to himself suddenly, trying to calm himself back down. "Willow, what did this vamp look like?"

Angel looked ready to spring up and leave right away. "Um…Angel? Shouldn't you get dressed? I'll tell you the rest at the library. That's where Cordelia and Xander are, get dressed and then Oz and me can give you a lift there. We don't really have much time to spare." Angel blinked at Willow. He had totally forgotten about his state of undress. Willow saw a very faint bit of colouring creep across Angel's cheeks. If he wasn't 242 years old and a vampire, she could've sworn he was blushing.

**The Airport, New Mexico**

Isabel was irritated; she had been waiting for half an hour now, her perfectly manicured nails tapped against the table, playing the whole Ice Queen thing to a T. Max was infuriatingly calm as usual, staring holes into Liz. Liz was also being annoying by fiddling with something in her hands, sighing a lot. Kyle and Tess were off in their own world; blatantly flirting with each other, occasionally she caught the phrase 'lamp trimming' and 'Buddha boy', Isabel thought best that she didn't know what that meant.

Maria was reading something about witchcraft, trying to swot up before she met Willow and whenever she thought no-one was looking, she would glance at Michael then look back to her book for the next 5 minutes. Michael in his usual cave man like way just grunted a few times when anyone asked him anything, he was also stealing glances at Maria and every time their eyes met he looked away.

Isabel looked at Alex; he had his headphones on, his head nodding to the music. How much she wished she could be with Alex but there was always something stopping her. She just couldn't show him the real her, the scared, vulnerable side. Besides, she agreed with Michael, what if something happened to him all because if her and her alien-ness. She didn't think she would be able to have that in her conscience.

Isabel looked at times for the planes. She sighed in annoyance; the plane won't be here for another half an hour.

"Hey, can we get something to eat?" Kyle piped up.

"Yeah, I'm starving." That was the most Michael had said in the past 48 hours.

"You're always starving." Maria smirked at Michael, Isabel didn't want to think if that had a double meaning or not, that would just be too gross.

"Lets get some KFC, McDonald's and Burger King suck." Kyle said, a look at pure disgust crossed over his face.

"Too true man!" Alex said, shaking his head, somehow he had managed to hear the whole conversation through his headphones.

"Okay you guys go and get us some food while us girls will stay here and look after the bags, get 2 super buckets that serve like 8 people so we can all eat." Maria said, batting her eyelashes and smiling at the hungry guys.

"Fine." Michael muttered and walked off in front. As soon as the boys were gone the 3 other girls crowded around Maria.  
  
"So Maria, your friend Willow is a witch right?" Tess started off, "You know if you learn all about his magic and stuff then it would help in our group. Against any FBI or any new dangers." Maria smiled her 100-watt smile.  
  
"That's the plan."  
  
"Okay, there's going to be a problem on this trip and I think everyone else knows what I'm talking about." Liz said, her face as stern as usual.  
  
"The cabin." Isabel breathed out.  
  
"Yep. There are only 4 bedrooms. I know we could go girl- girl, boy-boy, but I want to get Michael back. Staying in the same room with me for a few weeks will hopefully do that." Maria said. _Yeah, that or we'll end up murdering each other. _She thought to herself.  
  
"Yeah, I also want to explore what me and Kyle have." Tess looked over at Liz, took a deep breath and spilled her guts;  
  
"I'm sorry Liz for trying to steal away the guy that you love. Please try to understand that all my life I have had no family, no friends and the only thing that kept me going in life was that soon I will be able to find my true family and they will accept me. Knowing about Max being my former husband sort of made me snap because then I thought that a person would love me unconditionally even though I'm a freak. If that makes sense." Tess squirmed uncomfortably, she wasn't used to pouring out her heart like this, but she really felt she needed to set things straight.   
  
Liz did something very uncharacteristic with Tess and hugged her. "Its okay, I understand. I know you'll be happy with Kyle, he likes you a lot."   
  
Maria turned to Isabel, "I watched you Is when you were going out with Alex and I have to say you were the happiest I had ever seen. Now since you have broken up you seem more depressed and Alex is depressed, he was deliriously happy when you two started hanging out together. I know there was this huge thing about the destiny and stuff but if you four…um…Czechs stay _friends_ then I'm sure it really shouldn't matter." Maria was right and Isabel knew it.  
  
"Okay, girls lets make a pact that over the holiday we try our dammed hardest to get our guys."   
  
"Agreed." They all chorused.  
  
"What's agreed?" Alex asked behind them. The girls jumped and whipped around, unsure of what to say they just stared at Alex for a while.

"O..o..h nothing, just that when we get to this Sunnydale we….um…" Liz was never good at making believable excuses.  
  
"Just that we promise to share each others makeup and stuff, so there will be less fighting on our vacation." Tess carried on smoothly.  
  
"Oh, o-kay....we got food, just like you wanted." Alex put a bucket on the bench next to them and walked over to the guys.  
  
"What was that all about?" Kyle asked, clueless as ever.  
  
"I think they're up to something." Alex said, eyeing the girls as they giggled to each other. Shaking his head he bit into his chicken leg.  
  
"So Whitman, you hoping to score with Isabel?" Alex's eyes went wide and he started choking on the piece of his chicken.  
  
"Excuse me?

"Come on guys, its time to go now!" Isabel yelled at the boys. Curiously she eyed Alex, wondering what exactly was making him choke and if he is choking why is Kyle grinning like a madman? _This is not good._ She decided, _Not good at all _

"Isabel, come here for a minute." Tess was also grinning but there was a mischievous glint in her eyes. When Isabel reached the huddled group of girls, Tess started to tell them her plan. "Okay, I have thought of a genius warm up. When we get our tickets we will somehow make sure that our significant partner will sit by us all the way through the flight. We will sucker the guys into carrying our bags for us, saying some mushy stuff like they are so strong and able…blah, blah, blah. Then we'll go get the tickets and each get our partners' tickets aswell. Easy as pie."

"Wow Tess you're evil!" Maria laughed, finding a new respect for the curly blonde. She seemed to know her stuff when it came to manipulating men. The girls stifled their giggles, flashed their sexiest smiles and swayed their hips ever so slightly as they made their way over to the unsuspecting teenage boys.

Since you guys were so great getting us all that food…" Isabel started.

"We thought that we will go get your tickets for you." Maria finished for her.

"Uh…what's the catch?" Kyle asked, nervously looking from one girl to another. Tess smiled (if possible) an even more glamorous smile at Kyle.

"Catch?" She asked innocently, looking quite like and angel with her halo of white blonde curls. "There is no catch, can't us girls do something nice for you guys without there being a catch? We just need you to carry our bags to the plane, 'cause you're so strong and all." Kyle melted into Tess' baby blue eyes and nodded dumbly.

"Alex? Are you going to help?" Isabel gave a slight pout of her lips and tossed her hair over her shoulders. Alex swallowed the offending chicken in one gulp and quickly grabbed a few bags.

Michael just smirked at those poor whipped fools. Max was as much as a goner as the other two. He wouldn't bend to Maria's will, nope, not even is she kissed him _all_ over with those soft…sweet flavoured…shiny gorgeous lips. Nuh-uh, he won't do what she asks him to do, she can carry her own bags. He won't carry them for all the short silky skirts she can produce over her smooth milky white legs… Michael groaned, being on holiday with her is going to be hell on his pants.

As Kyle, Alex and Max walked past him carrying the girls' bags Michael made a light whipping sound.

"Yeah well Guerin, whipped or not at least over the holiday we'll be getting some." Kyle said, smirking smugly as Michael's smile dropped immediately.

tbc....


	3. Chapter 3

**Somewhere in Sunnydale, California**

Buffy wrinkled her nose in distaste. She was bound and gagged very securely. Obviously who ever kidnapped her knew of her super-human abilities. She was sat in a chair, in the middle of a room, in the dark. The door was locked and there were no windows. They must be somewhere by sewers, she detected, because there of a maddening drip that was coming from one of the corners in the room. No-body had come to see her yet. No-body had pushed any food through either.

Straining her eyes she make out a few boxes around the sides of the walls and pipes along the skirting boards of the ceiling. A wave of claustrophobia came over her. Panicking she rocked viciously back and forth, wiggling her arms and ferociously trying to tear at her gag with her teeth. Nothing working. Afraid and feeling for once very alone she slumped in her chair and closed her eyes, hoping it will all be a dream.

**Meanwhile at Angel's mansion**

Willow was getting fidgety. Angel has taken 10-15 minutes getting ready so far.

"Angel! Come on! This is of great urgency!" Willow giggled. She was spending way too much time with Giles; she was starting sound British.

Just as she stopped chuckling to herself the soulful vampire appeared, full dressed complete with hair gel. Thinking of poor Oz who was still in the van, Willow dragged the 242 year old in fast haste.

Oz was just mellowed out in the van, listening to music, eating some chips. You could tell when Willow was coming just by looking at him. His eyes lit up and (if possible) he seemed to relax even more. Then when they share their simple _'Hey's'_ a loving smile would grace his features. Nodding a hi at the well groomed Angel, they sped off to Library. There was silence in the van; only the fain rustle of the potato chip bag could be heard. Finally, when Willow thought she couldn't take the silence any more they arrived.

"We're here." She said brightly, stating the obvious. Hurriedly they rushed through the empty corridors and halls until they reached the Library doors. It had a notice on it, it was the notice they often used when researching: _Do Not Disturb!_ Willow inwardly chuckled; it was so simple yet it always worked.

**Flight 285, Airport; New Mexico**

The plane was quite nice with comfortable chairs. As the Tess planned, they managed to get seats next to their partners. Tess smirked; it also helped by flirting with the ticket guy. She was used to being in planes because of Nasaedo's constant need to move around. Looking out side she wondered how Nasaedo was doing, shutting down the FBI investigation and the rest. Tess let her gaze wander over to the roman god like guy next to her. Over this holiday, she's definitely going to make sure Kyle never sees her as a sister or buddy.

"Would you like a drink sir, ma'am?" That annoying bubblehead hostess was here again, she never seemed to leave them alone.

"I would like a soda please." Kyle answered, his eyes never leaving her chest. The blonde Courtney look-alike giggled, twirled a piece of obviously bleached hair between her fingers and handed Kyle his soda, her hand staying longer than it should be. Tess quietly growled,

"I would like a bottle of water," Tess turned her head slightly, addressing Kyle, "honey, are you sure that's all you want? It might be a long flight." Tess gave Kyle her heart-melting smile and looked at the woman with steely, silver blue eyes, challenging her. The airhostess nervously lowered her eyes and moved on to the next couple. Kyle was just oblivious, not noticing the looks the two ladies gave each other.

_Aw man this is just great!_ Michael grumbled to himself, _I get seated next to Maria! Damn it! How the hell am I going to control myself if I'm with her practically 24/7! _

Maria, trying to put on the old Deluca charm had decided to put on her lilac halter-top and short blue denim skirt, along with sandals, at the moment she was stretching, exposing the smooth ivory expanse of her stomach. Her hair was long and curled, her lips in her usual pouty state with strawberry tasting, ruby red lip-gloss. She quickly glanced at Michael and immediately met his eyes. He blushed a little bit for being caught checking Maria out.

His eyes sent shivers down her spine; the intenseness of those deep brown eyes rocked her right to the core. He looked dammed fine today! His hair in his usual unruly sexy spikes, wearing his tight charcoal coloured top; his muscled chest showing through. His soft lips looking extremely kissable. He did have on his leather jacket but in the place of that were his large and strong arms, Maria had a flash of those arms. Holding her when she was upset, running up and down her back in the Eraser room, saving everyone's lives, wrapped in a cocoon when he was sick, she remembered when she tried to care for those arms after they were bruised and beaten by his drunk foster parent Hank. Maria stared into Michael's eyes unflinching, and then smiled ever so slightly as if to say _I know._

Alex looked over at the blonde goddess next to him, she was brushing her soft beautiful hair. _Now why can't a girl like her like me? _ He thought to himself. _Duh, because I'm a nerd and she's….Isabel. _ As if hearing her name Isabel turned her perfect face over to Alex and smiled a little hesitantly. Alex smiled his big goofy smile back at her. Isabel laughed softly and picked up her bottle of still mineral water, which she bought from that annoying airhostess. Suddenly, the airplane rocked a little as it got ready for take off. Isabel's water flew out of her hands, luckily Alex caught it before it could splash the guy in front of them. Isabel gave the most brilliant smile to Alex that he had ever seen and he swore that his heart stopped for a few seconds.

"Quick reflexes." He said sheepishly. Isabel smiled back again and took the water from him. A sound came over the plane's speakers as the Captain was ready to make an announcement.

"This is the captain speaking, we have now taken off. Please ensure that your seatbelts are securely fastened, the air hostess will attend to any of your needs, please sit back and enjoy your flight." Both Isabel and Tess smirked to themselves knowing that the air hostess really will at least tend to** any **of the guys' needs. _I bet_, they thought to themselves, s_he had already attended the captains needs a short while ago_.

Isabel looked at Alex, he was again listening to his headphone, head bobbing at the tune. She knew that Alex would not be able to resist what she's going to throw at him over he holiday. Oh boy he will be putty in her hands.

Max looked at Liz. Liz looked at Max. They hadn't said a word since they sat next to each other. Just gave one another nervous looks and small smiles. "So..." Liz started. She couldn't think of anything else really to say. Its not like she could just say; _So the newest alien in this group has turned out to be your wife and Queen on your old planet, you probably had children and she is Michaels' sister who just happens to be your second in command who was married to your twin sister Isabel. That's great. _Liz knew that Tess wasn't after Max but she still felt jealous that they shared this whole life together and managed to get reborn together onto this planet. Tess is a more important asset in the group than she will ever be by a mile.

Max stared at Liz, you could tell she was in deep thought because her brow furrowed and her lips tightened in concentration. He thought it was cute. Liz sighed and laid back on the chair. "I'm going to go to sleep okay? I'm so tired."

"Yeah, I think I might do the same actually." Max felt a little disappointed, he had hoped they would be able to talk during the flight. _Ah well, _he thought to himself,_ I really should get some rest anyway. _

So the two dreamers slept, unaware to the small smiles sent their way from the rest of the group.

tbc...


	4. Chapter 4

**The Library, Sunnydale High School**

Willow pushed through the doors and found Giles and Xander arguing. Most likely because Xander wants to go off half-cocked and save Buffy and Giles knows that they have to wait and make a plan. Faith was there as well, looking bored, obviously wanting to punch something. She, of course, was looking devastatingly sexy, wearing a pair of black leather trousers and a tight sleeveless black top saying Devil on it on red glitter. Faith stared at Angel, clearly recognising him for who and what he was. She gave a low whistle.

"Its no wonder B fell for the un-dead if they looked like that. Damn!" Willow could have sworn that pink tinge was there again. She turned to the breath-taking vampire,

"Angel, this is the other slayer Faith. Faith as you guessed this is Angel."

"Pleased to meet you." Angel said quite formally as he shook her hand.

"Really the pleasure is all mine." Faith murmured, feeling a pang of jealousy. Why was it that Buffy gets a loving mom, great friends, a good looking fatherly like watcher, a one in a million vampire with a soul that's head over heels in love with her and that he's gorgeous? It wasn't fair! Buffy got everything and she still always whines.

Willow rushed over to Giles who was sitting by the table, cleaning his glasses. " Have you found out anything? Any prophecies or something?" Giles placed his glasses back on and started wandering around the table, looking at the open books that were strewn across it.

"No I'm sorry, there's nothing that indicates something coming up that involves the slayer."

"If you don't find her in a few days at least you'll know she's dead because another slayer will pop up." Cordelia said in her usual tactless way.

"Wow the scoobies without a clue, how novel. What straight away you should've bloody well done is checked the underground for info because there aint anything in those mouldy books that's gonna tell you what's going down in 2 weeks time. It's a complete shock to everyone." Spike said as he sauntered in through the stacks. Spike looked dead sexy (no pun intended). His platinum hair was in his usual slicked back style, his rough cockney English accent seemed quite strong at that moment, he was wearing his tight black jeans (a lot like faith) his usual beaten leather coat that was covering his tight white shirt.

"Now who the hell is this?" Faith asked, nearly wiping drool off her chin. She wanted him; she wanted him bad!

"I'm Spike, or formerly known as William the Bloody but if you call me that I'll rip out your spinal cord through your nose. You might have heard something about me."

"I'm Faith, another slayer. I've heard of you, you have killed 3 slayers right? Why are you helping us?"

"It's a long story but the main gist of it is that my ex girlfriend Dru, bloody loon, left me 'cause I fought against peaches over there, when he was bad that is. " Spike nodded towards Angel. "I would just leave Buffy to die but I want to kill her so I'm helping."

The amount of idle talking was adding to Willow's stress factor. Had everyone forgot that Buffy was missing? "Right, can we get some work done now!" Willow yelled. Everyone stared at her; it wasn't like Willow to yell.

"Right, Willow you go on to the ah…the…thing and search on anything big which in two weeks, that is of course if we can trust Spike. " Giles' fear of computers remained, of course that time when the demon Moloch was scanned into the internet didn't really help his fear. Willow was surprised that Giles actually let Angel in. It must've taken a lot of restraint not to stake him right there.

"I'll go on the underground with Nancy-Boy to check out any info there." Spike said, stalking into the stacks and disappearing with Angel behind him.

"I'll hit the books, " Xander said. Cordy followed him, mumbling something about gross dusty books that ruined her nails.

Oz just nodded at Giles and followed Xander and Cordelia. It was amazing how much he didn't say.

"Um, what should I do?" Giles looked at Faith, for once she actually looked quite unsure of herself, shy almost.

"You catch up with Angel and Spike, I think they'll need someone to stop them from killing each other. Well...mainly to stop Angel from killing Spike."

"Okay, gotcha." Faith ran after the two vamps, it was now peaceful again.

Giles grabbed a few books of prophecies, he was sure one of them had something in it about...wait a minute, what day is it in exactly two weeks? He grabbed the calendar off his desk, pushing away the thoughts of Jenny that always came with the word Calendar, and looked over the dates. There it was. No-one could see his face, but if they did they would know something bad had just been realised. Something real bad. Giles dropped the calendar, his hands shaking slightly. Hurriedly, he took off his glasses and cleaned them, then cleaned them again trying to work out what he should do.

They were all doomed.

tbc...


	5. Chapter 5

(authors note: I only realised the other day that California is like really close to New Mexico, please don't blame me, I'm british.)

**California Airport**

"Okay we're here." Maria said in the Airport triumphantly. She looked around, it was huge and much colder than she expected, of course not too cold. People were everywhere, getting off planes, buying tickets, eating food…

"Uuugh I feel sick." Liz whined. She hadn't stopped whining since she woke up. First, she was thirsty but the water (spring and bottled) made her feel ill. Then she was hungry but she decided all of the food was inedible, no matter what it was.

"I wonder if one of the air hostesses poisoned her on purpose." Isabel whispered to Tess. They both tried to hide their smirks behind their hands, hoping the little "princess" did not notice.

Alex looked over at Isabel giggling with Tess. He was so glad she had dropped the ice queen act; at least Maria has stopped calling her Queen Amidila. Now she was like even more beautiful than before, because she's truly showing her real self, that person he had always seen in her, the one he fell in love with. He just wished that she would see him in the same light.

"Now where do we go?" Tess asked, making a frown that cause cute little wrinkles to cross her forehead.

"Now," Maria said, "I will call Willow and get her to pick us up. Don't worry, she'll be as quick as she can." Maria brought out her cell phone in a flourish and dialled Willow's number.

_Ring Ring, __Ring Ring_

"Hello?" Willow picked up her phone. _Who would be calling me at this time of the day? _She wondered_. _ She didn't have much sleep last night since she had been researching until about 4am. Spike, Angel and Faith had not come back and she was slightly worried. There probably wasn't anything to be worried about, two old vamps and a slayer could hold their own. Giles hadn't said much all night, he mumbled to himself a lot and spent hours in the stacks. Something was telling her that he was keeping something from them, she'll have to worm it out of him soon.

"Hey Willow girl!" Willow nearly dropped the phone, crap! She had forgotten about Maria and her friends coming here.

"Maria? Oh my god is that you? Where are you?"

"We're at the airport, California airport. We're not too sure where to go. Can you pick us up? Otherwise we might get lost or something, I'm sorry, I know its quite early."

"Umm okay, hang on. How many of you are there?"

" There is...one minute, me, Michael, Liz, Max, Tess, Kyle, Isabel, Alex and Jim. So I guess that's nine. You know Jim would probably really get along with that Giles guy you were talking about. They are about the same age. Oh and here's a warning, beware of Kyle, he makes a pass at any girl."

"Um…okay." Willows head was racing, how was she going to deal with all of these new people coming to stay and this problem with Buffy. Could life get anymore confusing? "You know what I look like so at least you will recognise me. I'll come with a van and Giles' car; the van might only be able to take about 6 of you though. If Jim and two others take Giles' car, then you and the others take Oz's van...then hopefully we can get this all done. Sunnydale isn't that far from there, but its far enough to get extremely lost. I'll call back when I have everything ready and to tell you we're on our way."

"Okay, we'll just hang round here, maybe eat something. Can't wait to see ya babe, ciao." Maria turned to the others, "She'll be here in a little while, lets go get breakfast. The girls huddled together as Isabel announced she had another plan.

"Right, Plan 2 of Boy Seducing; while we eat our breakfast try to be as seductive as possible. Like sucking the straws with your drink or licking icing off a bagel or something. Trust me it will get the boys' mouths watering." Isabel looked at Liz, "Hmm, I'm not too sure how you can do this though because sometimes when the wrong person does it, it can make them look a little silly. No offence or anything, honestly. I mean, look at Monica with Chandler from Friends; he ended up losing a toe. You best do what you normally do; give sweet smiles, stare into his eyes. But, I do know a way that will get to him as much as us sucking on our straws...show skin. Maybe say _'wow...its really hot in here'_ and take off your sweater, making sure he sees as much skin as possible...yeah...that'll work." The girls smiled mischievously at one another and followed the boys to the breakfast bar.

The breakfast bar was quite large, it had countless amounts of food in it; Coffee machines, small boxes of cereal, doughnuts, freshly squeezed orange juice, bagels, croissants, salad sandwiches, coke machine, hot chocolate machine, muffins…it went on and on. Maria got an orange and some apple juice; Isabel got a few carrot and celery sticks and some bottled water, Tess got orange juice and an iced bagel and Liz just got a croissant. All three girls with drinks got straws, to temp the boys even further. They sat in pairs, Maria opposite Michael, Isabel opposite Alex…etc but so it wasn't obvious with what they were doing.

Maria smiled wickedly at Michael, caught his eye and proceeded to start drinking her apple juice. Michael was immediately entranced as he watched those shiny soft lips close around the straw and suck the juices out of it. Feeling his arousal start up he quickly looked away and made a start on his breakfast. If that was what you could call a breakfast. He got a Pepsi Max, a chocolate muffin, 3 sugar covered jam doughnuts and a double chocolate cake with whipped cream. Maria noticed him trying not to look so she gained his attention again by darting forward and taking the top off the cream on his cake, licking it off her finger, cleaning every bit off until its all gone. Then she peeled her orange very slowly, took out a piece and moaned with satisfaction as she bit into it, the juice seeping into her mouth.

Michael's widened and he nearly growled. This was just too hard to handle, he ached to grab her and take her over his shoulder, throw her into a nearby toilet or bush and ravage her. He finally lost it when Maria licked her lips and smiled a long sexy smile. "Mmmm good." She said and then took another sip off her apple juice. He stood up quickly.

"I gotta go…pee." He said and walked off. Maria turned and winked at Isabel. Yes this plan was going along greatly.

Much to Kyle's fascination, Tess picked up her bagel and started to slowly lick off all of the icing, one slow lick after another. It drove Kyle mad. Removing his eyes from Tess' slow torture, he started his breakfast; which was oddly enough identical to Michael's, only Kyle added in a bag of potato chips as well. Tess then copied Maria's actions with her orange juice. Kyle's reaction was so funny; his mouth was wide open, his tongue nearly hanging out...only his eyes were moving and they were following Tess' every move; up down, down up, up down…Kyle excused himself from the table muttering something about having too much to drink. His can was unopened.

The men's toilets were quite clean. Kyle walked into find Michael leaning against the hand dryer, his eyes closed.

"Yo man, what's up?" Kyle grinned, he knew exactly what was _up_ at this moment. "Don't feel too bad, Tess broke me as well. Do you think they are purposely doing this, like some kind of girl conspiracy? Nah, they wouldn't do that...would they?" Kyle stopped and actually thought about it. "Who am I kidding of course they would do that, they're women."

"We'll know for sure," Michael said, getting off the dryer, "if they're plotting against us, if Alex walks through that door in the same state as us." As if on cue, Alex burst into the men's and grabbed a handful of cold water, splashing his face with it.

"Hey Alex, Isabel got you too huh?" Kyle found this extremely funny. Here they were, big grown teenage guys running away from beautiful girls because they were too sexy. "Lets see who'll fall to their ways first yeah? The first guy that falls has to do a forfeit, like paying $20 or wearing a dress or something. The last guy who falls gets $20. Come on it'll be a laugh, besides we can then pick out the strong willed guys here and the blatant weaklings. I'd say Alex would go down first."

"Hey! I can be as strong willed as you." Alex said with an indignant look on his face. Michael smirked,

"Right, so if Isabel came up to you and asked you to ravage her, right then. You would just say no?" Alex thought about it.

"You're right. I bet on Max though, when I left he looked like he was in a bad shape."

"The perfect goody-two-shoes Miss Parker is being sexy?" Michael asked in disbelief, personally he thought Liz wouldn't know how to act sexy if it came up and bit her on the ass. Obviously, Alex thought the same because he cracked up laughing.

"No no no, she was taking off her sweater and underneath she was just wearing a spaghetti belly top. Max was just getting excited by that!"

"I would say Max would be the first one and I, being the most stubborn and more manly out of you all, will be the last guy to succumb to their ways." Michael said, while asking himself where the hell did the word succumb come from? That had never been in his vocabulary before.

"We best go back before they think something is wrong." Alex said, glancing at the door. Casually they strolled through the restaurant and spotted the girls and Max chatting away.

"They are probably talking to him about what makeup he uses." Kyle whispered, smirking.

Michael chuckled, "Yeah, and what nail polish colour would really suit them."

"There you are boys, we thought you had gotten lost!" Maria said, bouncing happily on the chair.

"That or you fell in." Isabel said dryly but with a small twinkle in her eye. The girls laughed and went back to talking to Max, both of the boys were wrong, they had been talking about hair products.

tbc...


	6. Chapter 6

**Sunnydale**

Willow mentally shook herself and dialled Oz's number immediately.

_Ring Ring, __Ring Ring_

"Oz here."

"Oz? Hey, it's Willow. Okay I need your van...well...I mean...I need you to bring your van, so we can go to the airport. If that's alright..."

"Sure, be there in a minute." He hung up, he always trusted her no matter what she said. Lately whenever she thought of Oz, she got this great pang in her chest. She knew what it was...guilt and it was to do with a certain strong attraction to the brooding vampire. Ever since she restored his soul and brought him back from hell, which none of the Scooby gang actually knew about, she's had this strong pull towards him. Of course, she saw how sexy and gorgeous he is but it was more than that, it goes past the physical realm right into the spiritual. It was probably just some after effects from having his soul pass through her...but still...there was something compelling her to him. Some bind that was unbreakable.

Dialling again, Willow called up Giles. "Giles? Its me, Willow. No no no, nothing's wrong. I'm sorry, I know it's quite early, it's just I need you to drive to the airport. Why? Oh, um some of my friends from Roswell have arrived and are going to be staying in the unused cabin. Yes, I know I should've told you yesterday but I got sidetracked by the whole kidnapping. Eeee um...can you tell me what you have found later 'cause they're waiting at the airport now! I've called Oz and he'll be here as well. How many? Um...lets see, eight teenagers and one adult. Okay, Oz is here, got to go. See you in a minute, bye." Willow ran out of her house, barely managing to grab her bag and jumped into Oz's van.

"Right, to the airport now. Giles is going to be there as well, I have a friend coming to stay for a while in Sunnydale from Roswell, she's brought 7 other friends and an adult, obviously, they thought they would have a holiday out of it...though I have no idea why they would holiday over here in the middle of nowhere....they're staying in the cabin and I need to take them there…and..." Willow stopped mid-babble and tried to catch some breath.

"Breathe Will, breathe." Oz reminded her, in his good-naturedly way. Will smiled back thinly and cast a worried look out into the scenery that sped past her.

- - - - -

Willow arrived at the airport in about 10 minutes; she had no idea how she was going to spot them in a crowd like this. Oz was holding her hand and Giles walked up next to them. Putting a hand over her eyes, she tried to block out the bright sun streaming through the window. _Hmm where could they....aha!_ Finally, she caught a glimpse of them; Michael was just as Maria described, tall, hunky, spiky hair. Of course, she wouldn't go for him, Maria had told her enough about his issues and commitment problems to be slightly discouraged but hell, he _was_ hot! _Naughty thoughts Willow, naughty thoughts. Oz is right there next to you. You're such a bad person. _ Willow scolded herself as she walked closer the the group.

"Maria?" She called out, a small but vibrant blonde stepped forward a little hesitantly.

"Willow?" She asked back, in a single moment moment they had one another enveloped in one of the biggest hugs known to man. "Oh my god! Wow, Will, it's so strange to see you in real life," Maria laughed, "when you used to be just Times Roman font size." Willow laughed along with her, and then she noticed Maria staring at her companions.

"Oh my god, where are my manners? Maria, this is Oz," she pointed at the relaxed lead guitarist, "and this is Giles."

"Hey," Oz said simply

"How do you do." Giles said in his rather formal British way. Suddenly Giles caught a glimpse of Jim Valenti; his expression paled and gave him a questioning look. Jim nodded slightly and put his fingers against his lips, telling Giles to not say anything. The teenagers were oblivious to the message that passed between the two adults and continued introducing each other.

After the introductions were made, they piled into the cars, dragging their baggage with them; Liz, Max and Jim went in Giles'car and Willow, Maria, Michael, Kyle, Tess, Alex and Isabel squashed up in Oz's van. Willow gave directions to the cabin, Giles followed behind and in about 30 minutes, they had arrived.

"We're finally here!" Willow chirped happily, knowing that the guys would love to stretch their legs outside.

The cabin was gorgeous! It was quite big with ivy growing around the doors and woods surrounding it. Willow went to the door and opened it, nearly being trampled by a rush of eager teenagers. The inside was beautiful too: heavy draperies in a dark red, open fireplace, a red PVC couch and two-seater, a soft brown carpet, a TV and video player, countless videos, a hi-fi with CD's…and that was just in the living room.

"Willow, how much is this to rent then?" Jim asked. Willow beamed; she had nearly forgotten to tell them!

"Its free." She said, now with a small smile playing around her lips.

"Free? How?" Alex asked.

"My uncle owns it and he said if it's my friends that are coming down then they are friends of his, so he said you can stay as long as you like for free. However, there are a few conditions, do not break/take anything, say thank you when you next see him, he'll be dropping by later to meet you all and lastly…have fun! I came in before you arrived and brought some videos, books and cd's so you'll be comfortable." Willow's grin grew bigger as she watched Maria and her friends whoop with happiness.

"Lets sort out bedrooms!" Maria cried and ran up the stairs so quick you could hardly see her move. The first room she wandered into Maria immediately knew this was hers; it had a blue water ripple effect that had been painted on the walls with a fire pattern stencilled over it around the bottom edge. There were two beds, single, with a dresser between them against the wall. There was a bookcase, with books and novels in them and a stereo on top of it.

Isabel followed Maria up the stairs and found her gaping at the room she has walked in.

"Maria, are you okay?"

"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine! I think I'll have this room." Maria smiled; she knew this was perfect for her Spaceboy as well. She needs to have a talk with him, tell him how she feels and what they are going to do with this non-relationship.

"Maria, what are we going to do about your friend? Eventually they'll find out, especially since we're staying for so long and then what's going to happen when she introduces us to her group?

"Don't worry Isabel, I'm sure its all going to be fine as long as you all control your powers." The others came upstairs to sort out the rooms but Willow and Giles hung back.

"Willow how are we meant to deal with these, ah, teenagers while danger is afoot. Buffy is missing, we have no leads to where she is, and if she's even alive. This is a distressing time for us and it is going to even more, ah, stressful with your friends staying. Moreover, there is a prophecy I have uncovered which is…not good." Giles mentally chuckled dryly, not good was an understatement. _I wonder why Jim is here, after all these years of being away we finally bump into each other. I should talk to him and see what he can make of the prophecy and Buffy being missing._

"Don't worry Giles, I'll distract them whenever the slaying comes up and maybe they could help us if we say our friend has gone missing. Of course, not tell them the whole truth but still…it might work." Willow sounded more confident than she was. _How the hell am I going to control this? _

- - - - - -

The rooms were finally sorted. Jim made it perfectly clear there were _not_ going to be couples in rooms, though surprisingly Liz and Kyle protested rather loudly at that. They decided it would be best if there were one alien and one human in a room together, of the same sex. Maria and Isabel stayed in one room, Tess and Liz stayed in another, Michael and Alex in the boy 'quarters' and finally Kyle and Max in the last one. Jim had a downstairs room to himself, which he was quite pleased with. Willow had long since gone home, promising to come over in the morning to introduce them to her friends. Giles lingered behind, wanting to talk with Jim.

"So Jim, long time no see...I thought you were still in Texas. Do the kids there know much about your past?" Jim glanced upstairs, praying the kids were asleep Then he tossed Giles a beer and opened his own.

"No they don't, but I'm betting they will soon enough. I was opposed to coming here because I knew it would happen, but that Maria, she's a damn persuasive little thing, just like her mother." Jim's eyes twinkled at the thought of Amy, Giles smirked at Jim as he daydreamed for a while.

"So Jim what have you been doing since you quit being a Watcher?" Giles sat back, nursing his cold beer. He doesn't usually drink beer anymore. Give him a brandy or scotch on the rocks anytime, but a beer felt needed today.

"Well, I went to New Mexico, Roswell no less. I became a sheriff, had a kid - that was Kylie that you met, but cancer took my wife when Kyle was quite young. He was really broken up about it for ages, he loved his mom, almost as much as I did. So Rupert, in all of your research have you found proof of aliens?" Giles nearly spurted out his beer in shock.

"No…uh…not yet really. Why?"

"Because four of the eight kids up there are undeniable aliens, two of them have been healed by an alien and so have I." Giles' normal unflappable facade was dropped as he stared at Jim with a mixture of shock, interest and disbelief. _Its strange, _Jim mused, _people in the 60's took acid to make the world seem weird. Today, people take Prozac to make it seem normal. _Jim waited patiently for Giles to come out with a fairly coherent sentence instead of doing what he was doing at that precise moment, which was opening his mouth and then closing it, looking fairly similar to some kind of goldfish.

"W…what? Aliens? Okay....I guess if there's vampires and demons and witches...I suppose there can be aliens too...but...aliens? Wow and I thought my kids were very mixed species; a witch, two Slayers, two master vampires, one who is souled, a werewolf, a teen beauty queen and the other...a Zeppo."

"Jeez, that is mixed! Okay I'll tell you about how I came to know these aliens and you can tell me your story, sound fair?" Giles nodded, now this was something you never expected to hear everyday, how his old buddy met a group of teenage aliens. Giles repressed the urge to laugh and listened to Jim spin his tale.

"…so then Michael killed Agent Pierce and we decided to come here to lay low for a while, a vacation of sorts." Jim smirked as he saw Rupert's eyes wide, hanging onto every word. "It's your turn now, how did you get lumbered with not one but two Slayers and a group full of 'different' people?" In all truth Jim was really very interested to hear this story, especially about this whole souled vampire bit. He grabbed another beer, settled back on to the couch and listened to Rupert tell his side.

"…so Buffy has been kidnapped and Spike has just returned wanting to help for some god knows reason." Now it was Giles turn to smirk, Jim was more bug-eyed than he was! Jim whistled his amazement.

"Wow that is something. Tell me again about this prophecy you mentioned, it sounds like a biggie, maybe I can get the kids to help."

"Well…

tbc...


	7. Chapter 7

- - - - -

The next morning Maria slowly crept downstairs and found Jim blissfully asleep on the couch. Smiling fondly she grabbed the near by blanket and carefully tucked him in. There were several empty beer cans on the glass coffee table. _Hmm maybe Giles and him had a chat. That's nice, I hope they got on. _Being as quiet as she could she carefully made her way to the small kitchen. Coffee pot brewing, she set doing what she came down to do. _They will be so surprised._ She happily thought to herself.

"Ungh." Kyle groaned and gradually opened his eyes. The sun was streaming through the window and he immediately panicked. Where was he? What was he doing there? But at last, yesterday's events all flooded back to him. He glanced over at Max and noiselessly got up. As he got to the stairwell a delicious smell wafted over to his nose. The smell was familiar, it reminded him of his mom when she was still with them. What was it? He cautiously tiptoed down the stairs, saw his dad asleep and sneaked past him to the kitchen. It was Maria, she was making pancakes! Oh happy day!

"It's about time sleepyhead! Go and wake the others, breakfast is nearly ready." Maria smiled as she flipped another golden brown, perfect, pancake. There were dozens already! Kyle grinned and bombed up the stairs.

The first room he came to was Tess and Liz's room. He quietly walked up to Tess' bed and sighed, looking down at her angelic face. She looked so beautiful when she was asleep; if possible even more than when she was awake! He brushed his hand across her face, _her skin is so soft!_ He thought to himself and sighed again, blissfully watching her.

"Ahh Kyle, so the plot thickens." A voice said from beside him. Kyle jumped about half a mile in the air. It was Liz; she had a rather smug smile on her face. Kyle felt worried; Liz in power of a secret was never a good thing. "So you've fallen in love with Tess. How cute! Does she know?" Kyle was ready to deny everything but he knew it was no use.

"I don't think so. She probably doesn't feel the same way, thinks of me as a brother or something. Don't tell her! Please? It would mean so much to me if you didn't!" Kyle gave her the puppy dog eyes. Liz raised an eyebrow and watched Kyle squirm, then rolled her eyes and sighed,

"Fine! Fine! But I will _have _to ask her now how she feels about you, otherwise I'll just go insane. So, apart from peeping on Tess, why are you here?"

"Oh yeah, Maria's making breakfast. She told me to wake you guys."

"What about Tess?" Liz smiled again as Kyle faintly blushed.

"Just give her another five minutes, she looked really tired yesterday."

"Okay, let's wake the others." Liz bounded out of the door to wake Max; Kyle gave Tess a long look and again sighed as he followed Liz out of the door. When the door was shut, Tess cracked open an eye.

- - - - - - -

Kyle walked back to his room with Liz trailing after him. She spotted Max sleeping like a baby, with the happiest expression she had ever seen, spread across his face.

"Max? Max? Come on. Wake up. It's time to get up Max." Liz gently shook Max's shoulder. Max moaned and loudly mumbled

"Oh Liz! Yeah feels good! Faster! More!" Liz went a deep scarlet and started to impatiently shake Max. Her cheeks were burning; she looked like she just wanted to die right there. Kyle grinned.

"Wake up Max! Now!" Liz yelled into his ear, dreading the thought of any more mumbles coming out of him.

"Ugh what? What's wrong?" Max bolted awake to find a very red Liz and one doubled up, crying laughing Kyle. "What?" Max's hands went straight to his head to check his hair and smoothed it down. Just in case.

"Oh Liz! Harder! Faster!" Kyle mimicked and then went into another round of giggling. Max looked confused for a moment and just stared at Kyle blankly, then as his dream came rushing to him, very vividly, he went redder than Liz and covered his face with his hands. To ease their embarrassment Kyle changed the subject. "Come on, get dressed. Maria's made pancakes!" Max beamed as his stomach growled loudly. He was starving! Quickly, he rushed downstairs.

"Go on Liz, I'll wake the rest." Liz gave Kyle a brief smile and bounded out of the room after Max. Kyle walked into Maria and Isabel's room and gently shook Isabel awake. Isabel awoke with a lot more grace than her brother and when told about the pancakes a slightly disgusted expression came across her face.

"Ew! Greasy, sugary, pancakes? For breakfast? I think I'll just stick to fruit. You go though, I'll wake up Alex, Michael and Tess." Kyle was relieved to hear that, the idea of waking up **Michael **was completely unappealing. Kyle sent Isabel a grateful grin, kissed her cheek and then skidded out after Liz. Isabel shook her head and smiled at Kyle's antics.

She walked across the hall to Michael and Alex's room and smiled fondly at the sleeping guitar player. _He's so adorable, _she thought to herself. Softly, she roused him. His eyelids fluttered open and revealed his startling bright blue eyes, they seemed to pierce right through her and even though he was human, she swore he could read her entire soul with that gaze. She stood there, her mouth slightly open, falling deeper into Alex's eyes. Finally, with his eyes never leaving hers, he mumbled;

"Am I dead? For there is a beautiful angel standing over me, an angel with rays of the sun for hair and eyes as blue as the ocean's depths." Alex gave her a lopsided smile which made her insides quiver and melt. He then shyly whispered, while blushing, "good morning Isabel." Isabel noticed she had been staring and blushed with him. Quickly, she composed herself.

"Maria's made pancakes for breakfast and has told us to get up if we want some." Alex smiled brilliantly at the thought of breakfast and quickly jumped out of bed. Isabel pretended not to notice how incredibly toned and firm he looked, not to mention sexy…standing there in his boxers... "Kyle, Max and Liz are already downstairs. So you better go quickly if you want some."

"I'll go wake Tess." Alex said, realising there was either Tess or Michael to wake up and he really didn't like the idea of waking up one of the grumpiest guys he knew.

"Don't you think you should put some trousers on? Otherwise Tess may get a bit of a surprise, not to mention the wrong idea." Isabel laughed and winked at the now scarlet computer geek. Alex quickly ran to get his trousers as he realised that he was standing there, in his boxers, in front of the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Unfortunately, Life seemed to have it in for him this morning as he tripped over the bed and landed on his face. Isabel chuckled again and Alex just wished the ground would swallow him up whole right there. He quickly got back up, shoved on his trousers and rushed off grinning to wake up Tess.

Isabel still laughing turned to Michael's bed and watched him sleep for a few minutes. He looked so sweet and vulnerable while he slept, like a lost little boy. Michael always brought out her mothering instincts. Though, he often complained of her always clucking around him like a mother hen. You could hardly believe the sleeping Michael and the Michael awake were the same person, they looked so different. _Maria is so good for Michael, I'm glad he has her, _she thought to herself. The message they had received from their mother came back into her head, it couldn't be right, she just didn't feel that way about Michael. He belonged with Maria. Nothing like that would ever happen, no matter what her kind says.

With that thought in her head, she shook Michael awake.

tbc....


	8. Chapter 8

- - - - - - -

"Michael….Michael…."

Michael cracked open an eye and groaned, the sunlight, of course, was hitting him right in the face as he woke up. Cussing under his breath, he cracked open the other eye to see who had disturbed him. Of course it was Isabel. Who else would it be? He wished it was Maria, but then why would Maria come and wake him up, it's not like they're going out anymore.

"What? I was happy sleeping! Can't you just let a guy sleep??" Michael glared at her as he growled out of his questions, Isabel smirked. If Kyle was here instead of her he would be pissing himself by now. Michael's looks weren't always the friendliest, especially in the early morning. Luckily, she 's had practice with this, after 10 years of him grouching at her in the mornings she knew just how to handle him.

Isabel drew herself upright, arched one perfectly plucked eyebrow, put her hands on her hips and in her coldest, most cutting "Ice Queen" tone she sarcastically replied, "I beg your _pardon_ **King** Michael, but as you may or may not have noticed, it is now morning. Maria, you remember her right, has slaved for hours at the crack of dawn to make pancakes for breakfast, so you better get some pants on your sorry excuse for an ass and go! **Or** I can go downstairs and tell Maria that you just don't _feel_ like it." She punctuated every word with a jab of her finger into his bare chest. Michael paled at the prospect of Isabel telling Maria that he can't be bothered; hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Gulping quickly he grabbed his jeans and yanked them on and followed Alex and Tess downstairs.

"Wow Maria you certainly have outdone yourself" Jim remarked. The pine table was covered in plates for everyone, including bottles of Tabasco sauce for the 4 aliens and their Sweet 'n' Spicy taste buds.

Michael stood quietly in the doorway and watched Maria grin and blush at Jim's compliment. Her hair was tied back into a messy ponytail, she had no makeup on, her clothes were spotted with random pancake ingredient and she had a smudge of something on her cheekbone…yet he thought she never looked more beautiful. Maria had felt Michael watching her ever since he got down the stairs; the intensity of his stare made her heart race in her chest and goose bumps rose up her back and down her arms. Her hands started feeling a little unsteady. Nervously she glanced over at Michael and caught his gaze, a giddy kind of heat flushed over her as his eyes moved up and down her body…

"Hey Michael! Come grab a seat." Liz said brightly, ruining whatever moment they just had then. Michael almost jumped at the sound of Liz's voice; he'd forgotten that there were other people in the room. Maria smirked and served the pancakes to everyone. Suddenly there was a knock at the door,

"I'll get it." Tess said, as she was coming down the stairs. She opened the door and was greeted by a perky redhead.

"Hello, is Maria in?"

"Willow!" Maria cried and ran to give her a hug. "Do you want some pancakes? I made them myself?" Willow came through to the kitchen and smiled at everyone else who said hi and good morning.

"No I'm alright, honestly. I was thinking today I could show you around this tiny little place and hopefully you all can meet my friends? They are dying to meet you all. " Willow smiled as the others enthusiastically agreed. "Okie dokie...well how about we go after the pancakes and if any of you need to get changed or washed or whatever."

"Sounds great. I better go change; I'm covered in egg and grease. Ew." Maria smiled and ran upstairs.

**Meanwhile at the Library**

****

"Okay, so what are we doing again?" Cordelia asked. Oz rolled his eyes and stared at Xander, indicating that he should now answer her question yet again.

"Well, as I said earlier, Willow has gone to collect her friends and she's going to bring them here. We are all going to meet them and say hi. Then we're going to show them around a little bit, get to know them, make sure they aren't really just sent to kill us or anything. You can deal with that right? Or do you have some pressing nail appointment again?" Cordelia glared at him and slapped him across the head. Spike chuckled at that and Faith just shook her head and went back to sharpening her stake, waving it threateningly towards Spike.

"What about the Buffster? What are we doing with that sitch?" Faith asked, glancing at Giles and Angel who were quietly talking between themselves.

"Well we better wait until Willow comes back with her ah…friends before we make any proper kind of plan. But I believe a few of you should see Willy the Snitch and try and get some information out of him. Spike and Faith should probably do that. But before we do anything, there is a lot that needs to be discussed when Willow gets here.

"Hey, her friends, they're from Roswell right? Do you think they've seen any aliens? It would be so cool if they have; we could all share our_ unfortunate_ encounters of ghoulies and vamps and the supernatural." Xander directed that at Spike and Angel but just received a glare from everyone else.

"Yeah, and you can tell them how Mummies and Bug ladies kiss. I'm sure they would _love_ to hear about that." The cheerleader remarked, gaining a glare back from Xander. Spike chuckled again, he found watching them two so amusing….but watching Faith, now that was a different kettle of fish altogether. Faith is….hot. He had to admit it. The Slayer thing seemed just damn right kinky coming from her. Slutty the Vampire Layer (as he loved to think of her as) was whiny; self-righteous…it turned him off completely. No matter how many times she had thrown herself at him. Which she had, something he betted poncy Soul Boy didn't know. But Faith….

Spikes musings were interrupted as the doors suddenly flew open and in came Willow with a group of teens and an adult about the same age as Giles. Something wasn't right though….Angel jumped in immediately with what was different,

"You're not human."

tbc....


	9. Chapter 9

**A.N:** I'm so so sorry it has taken me this long to produce a part, but I just had such a serious writers block on what to do next. This is a little rushed and I'm not too fond of it but it'll do to just keep the story moving along. Thankyou so much all that have reviewed, I promise I will be better at this as the summer continues. More parts soon I promise.

- - - - - - -

The room went silent, everyone turned their heads and stared at the group of teenagers that had just arrived. "Well, some of you aren't anyway.." Angel amended, feeling slightly embarrassed for pointing it out so bluntly.

Michael stared at this new pale guy and quickly voiced exactly what he was thinking, "And how would **you** know that? Who the fuck are you?" The guy just stared at him emotionless, which made Michael angrier. _Is this why Maria gets so annoyed with me when I do the stonewall thing? I can see why...but I at least have a reason... _Michael glanced over at Maria, she had paled at the guy's remark and even though she looked completely in control, he could see her hands were shaking slightly. Without thinking, Michael slipped his hand into hers and he squeezed it reassuringly. She looked up him in surprise, and smiled at him gratefully. He almost forgot how well they could communicate silently, he could read her and most of the time she could read him, whether he liked it or not. He scrutinized each new person in the room, they looked like they were preparing for something, a battle perhaps? The dark haired girl clad in leather was sharpening something.

Faith noticed the rude teenager staring at her, it wasn't an admiring glance though, this stare almost sent chills down her back...it was penetrating and assessing. She saw his gaze linger on the stakes; did he know what they are? Faith's mind was already reeling from Angel's statement; she hadn't sensed anything different about these teenagers, except they all looked tense, frightened, and a lot older than their age. As if they had been through some ordeal that had aged them. She could relate there. Michael's gaze could still be felt when she looked away, it burned on her, making her skin flush with heat. Something about him made her nervous, which in itself was otherworldly, she had _never_ been nervous around _anything _before

Finally, the silence was broken by Valenti making a loud sound of exasperation and strode forward towards Giles, "Damn it, I knew something like this would happen! I told you Rupert that it would!"

"Well...ah...yes, I suppose it was to be expected. But I think we can work this out" The twinkle in his eye gone as he approached this topic will full seriousness. Everyone was dumbly staring at _him_ now, questions on all of their faces. "Okay, how do I start this, Rupert do you have any advice? Maybe we could just go around in a circle and just introduce who we are…_what_ we are and a little bit of our history. Would that work?"

"I want to know who _they _are first before I say anything about myself; they could be FBI for all we know." Isabel said, anxious was an understatement to describe her. Angel's remark had shaken her right through, ripping away every ice wall she had managed to build up.

"They're not FBI Isabel," Jim said gently, "I know them. Well I know Rupert anyway and he told me last night who they are. You see, Rupert is a Watcher, something I used to be a long time ago."

"Dad?" Kyle questioned, Jim nodded to him and carried on."

"Watcher is a mentor to the Slayer. A slayer is a girl born every generation to fight against the evil side of the world, the vampires and demons. When one slayer dies, another is called. It's been like this for thousands of years." There was a ripple of nervous laughter from Michael and Alex. He had to admit, it did sound a little kooky. "It's not joke boys; this girl is born stronger and faster than normal humans and heals at an increased rate. I never actually became a watcher, I trained to be one but I decided to quite, it just wasn't right for me. I then became a Sheriff in Roswell and until recently had been their enemy." Jim motioned to the silent group of aliens that were staring at him in disbelief.

"Right..." Maria started, feeling a little at loss for words. "Okay, maybe we _should_ do the circle thing, it may sound silly but it's definitely less complicated!" Everyone else just nodded, even Spike was silent.

"Indeed, well as Jim here said, I'm Rupert Giles, I'm human and I'm Buffy and Faith's watcher." Giles said, looking a little nervous at the staring aliens.

"Yo, I'm Faith, a super-girl slayer, B died for like a sec and so I was called. That's why there are two slayers." Faith nodded to everyone and then went back to whittling her stakes while listening to the others start to introduce themselves.

"I'm Xander, just a regular ol' humanoid, I found out about all of this stuff when Buffy first came here. I've been helping her ever since."

"I'm Cordelia, a human as well thank god, I got shoved helping these losers after they saved my life a few times."

"I'm Willow, as you all already know, I'm a witch and I've been Xander's best friend since we were kids. I found out the same as he did and have been helping too." Willow glanced at Oz, worriedly, hoping for reassurance. He squeezed her hand and introduced himself.

"Oz. Werewolf. Got bit." Oz said, in his usual monosyllabic way.

"I'm Spike, formerly known as William the Bloody. I'm a damn bad vampire, Nancy Boy over there," Spike nodded at the still silent Angel, "made me into a vampire, he's my sire and for some bloody reason I'm helping these lil chits."

"Angel. Vampire. About 221 years old. Got cursed with a soul by gypsies. I don't bite people anymore. When people are turned into a vampire, their souls are gone, that's why it's easy to kill, no guilt." He then turned and looked expectantly at Michael, his gaze burning into him as a challenge. He knew they weren't human but they for sure weren't vampires either, he didn't trust them and he knew that spiky haired boy didn't trust him either. The tall blonde had mentioned something about FBI, which confused him. Why would the FBI be after these kids?

"Well, now we know who you are, we better introduce ourselves." Max said calmly, Angel could tell he was the leader; it was coming off him in strong waves. The level voice, the calm yet indefinitely strong eyes, ever watchful of everyone's move. "I'm Max, I'm 16 years old and I'm an alien. In 1947 a ship crashed into Roswell and in there was our parents and our pods. We were incubated in them until 10 years ago, where we came out looking like 6 year olds. Our pods were hidden in a cave as our ship and everything else got taken away. Including our parents." He stared at Angel and the others, there was something wrong but he just couldn't put his finger on it.

"I'm Isabel, I'm Max's sister. We were found wandering the desert road and were adopted. We've been living like humans since then, we don't know where we came from or anything of our kind."

"I'm Liz. I'm human and was shot by a pair of arguing truckers. Max saved me by healing me and that's when I first knew about their secret."

"I...I'm Maria. I'm human, Liz told me first, since I had seen what had happened and asked her about it." Maria rummaged in her pocket for her oils; this was all just way too much to take.

"I'm Alex; I'm the best friend to Liz and Maria. I was told later on when they needed me to cover for Max when he was in hospital. Alien blood is different to human blood."

"I'm Kyle, I'm human, son to Jim, I've only just recently found out about this whole thing...Max healed me when an FBI agent shot me." _That explains the FBI comment, _Angel thought to himself. He knew Michael would introduce himself last, just like he had done. It was an acceptance to the challenge.

"I'm Tess, I'm alien, I broke out of the pods last and was taken by our carer who was still alive, and he's called Nasaedo. I have only really just met the others of my kind."

"I'm Michael. I'm an alien; I was found wandering the desert and was put into a foster home. A different one to Max and Isabel." Michael stared at these new people and quickly worked out what was wrong. "There's someone missing from your group. You mentioned a 'Buffy' a few times, where the hell is _she_?"

"She's missing. A vampire took her off somewhere." Willow said, her eyes filling up slightly. Oz gave her a hug and shot daggers at Michael for being so blunt.

"Oh Willow, chica!" Maria exclaimed. She broke the tension by crossing the invisible divide that had formed between the two groups and hugged Willow. "We'll help get her back, right guys?" It wasn't a question; it was more of an order and a prompt for others to be friendly. Max held her gaze for a while, considering it and then slowly nodded.

"Yes, we'll help." Everyone in the group nodded with him except for Michael who stubbornly crossed his arms and stared at Maria, a scowl forming on his face. She knew exactly what was going through his mind, but she knew she could convince him, it just took some reassurance.

Giles stood and looked at the two groups, he could feel the prophecy unfolding as he watched them. He hoped to god that things would work out differently to what was prophesised; otherwise they all were looking at a terrifying ordeal before them.

tbc...


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks you everyone who has been following this! I know its been going slow, but I thank you all so much for your reviews. You are wonderful.**

* * *

Two separate groups were at two separate sides of the room, talking quietly. In the right hand corner there were the Sunnydaleians, or the 'Scoobies' as Xander loved to call them. In the left hand corner were the Roswellians, or as Maria often remarked, The Pod Squad.

"How can we be sure they're legit?" Michael hissed, trying to keep his voice down. "Vampires? Slayers? Witches? They're just a bunch of crazies looking to rope us in. I say we leave here and leave now."

Max stared thoughtfully at the opposite group. It was strange, he couldn't deny that, but if he could be an alien, he supposed there could be such things as vampires and werewolves… "Michael, I know it's a little...unorthodox. But Valenti seems to know that librarian well, and he's agreed with them. I believe him, I think this is okay."

"What a crock of shit Maxwell, but then again I should have known you'd side with anyone but me, as always." Frustrated, Michael sighed and ran his hand through his hair. With hope in his eyes, he glanced over at Isabel. "What about you?"

Isabel squeezed Alex's hand harder as she cleared her throat. "I don't know. No offence Kyle but your dad could still be working against us. It's too early to trust his judgement. I know he helped us with Pierce...but I don't know, this could call be a trap."

"If it were a trap, it's pretty elaborate. Maria knew Willow before Valenti knew about us being…"

- - - - - - -

"An alien? Oh come on Willow, you can't be serious? You can't seriously trust these loonies can you?" Xander snorted with laughter. "Actually maybe you're right, yeah, I mean look at the spiky-haired boy there - he's doing well to hide his space antennae. And that big eared guy…damn…definitely a Vulcan, I should have known! I wonder…do they come in peace…"

"Oh shut your bleedin' mouth you ponce, of course you wouldn' understand why we believe 'em. You're just a happy meal with legs, waitin' to be bitten into. We vamps can smell humans and those four aint any bloody normal humans I've ever smelt." Spike said, cutting off Xander's rant before he could do ET impressions or probe jokes.

"Thank you, Spike." Willow said, smiling a little at him. She understood how trying Xander could be sometimes, but his comedy was part of his charm…like…Chandler from Friends or something. "I trust Maria, and I trust what I have noticed about her and her life while we talked, sometimes she lies as badly as we seem to when we have our hellmouthy stuff happen. I trust Spike and Angels instincts. What about you Faith?"

Faith looked surprised to be included, but then just shrugged. "I dunno, G seems quite tight with the other guy, if G trusts them then I guess I'll hold back any judgement."

"Well they could always just prove they're aliens right?" Oz asked quietly. It seemed to make the most sense.

Willow beamed at her boyfriend; he always knew just how to solve things. Glancing at Angel she felt that familiar guilty pang, how could she have been drooling over him when she has someone like Oz in her life? Or when her best friend was god knows where. She was a bad friend, a bad, bad, **bad** friend. "Yeah that sounds like a better plan."

Cordelia rolled her eyes, she was bored. So there were aliens too? Big dealio, she was missing a damn manicure for this. "Can I say something please?"

"Can we stop you?" Xander quipped, causing him to have a slap upside the head from both Faith and Cordelia. "Ouch! Unfair. Slayer strength." Angel and Spike smirked at that, while Willow just rolled her eyes.

- - -- - - - -

"…oh yeah and he saved Max's life because really he just wanted to deliver him to death personally!" Kyle seethed; luckily Tess was there…she was such a calming influence on him. Which was strange considering she was one of _them_, an alien invader, he would have thought he'd be more afraid. Then again it could just be due to the fact she was a super hot alien invader. Yeah…that was probably it.

"Hey, back off, Kyle. Isabel was just voicing her fears." Alex said calmly. "I say trust them for now, or make them prove they are what they say they are. That would help the situation right?"

"Alex, well done, that's the smartest thing anyone has said all day." Maria smiled. Meeting Willow for the first time would not be ruined because of this, she wouldn't allow it to. She jabbed Michael little as he stood there scowling. "Michael? Do you agree?"

Glancing at Maria's narrowed eyes and feeling her insisting pokes, he knew he wouldn't be able to say no, she had that look on her face. A look that promised he wouldn't be getting any if he didn't agree. "Fine, yeah, whatever. Make them prove it." _Damn._ _I've still got that bet goin' on, and I've just lost a lot of man-points for agreeing with her so easily. Think Mud. Mud. Maria and Mud. Maria rolling around in mud all dirty in her bikini…oh dammit. _

"Tess what about you? What do you say?"

"Rude much!" Cordielia huffed. "Anyway what **I**was going to say is that I don't see what the big deal is, or how this has anything to do with me. So what if there's aliens? We deal with enough weirdness right?"

"Yeah you're bloody well right, so let's get on with it shall we luv?" Spike smirked, while his eyes bored into Faith, intently watching her stroke the sawdust off a newly sharpened stake.

"Look while we're standin' here yappin', we're wastin' time looking for B? It's not all five by five if we don't find her right? These guys will probably help. They scratch our back and maybe we can scratch theirs." Faith smiled to herself, she could feel Spikes eyes on her, as if they burnt her with every look. But wow, look at the spiky-haired boy, alien or not, he was mighty fine too. _What is with all this eye-candy suddenly? I've definitely got an itch, and I wouldn't mind either of them boys scratching it._

Angel stood up, "You're right Faith. Willow you talk to them." He said shortly and walked around the stacks for as bit, he wished he didn't just have to sit there. He wanted to take some action and he wanted to take it now. _With who though?_ His demon slyly whispered. _Come on admit it to yourself, you want her, you want to touch her fire, you want to drown yourself in her innocence…in her purity. You want to have the redhead and that's why you haven't touched Buffy since you've been back from hell. It's why everytime that dog-boy touches her, you feel the strong urge to hit something…_Angel growled quietly, wishing the demon would shut up. _No. I am never going to destroy something that pure. Not if I can help it. _

_- - - - - - - - -_

"Umm...well if Valenti knows them, then maybe we should just trust them for now. It doesn't matter anyway because we've already told them what and who we are." Tess fidgeted under the stare of everyone else and unconsciously moved closer to Kyle. He seemed nice; he was calming and also the outsider to the hostile group.

Liz opened her mouth ready to argue when Willow walked cautiously up to them. Maria met her in the middle and after a short whispered discussion that was watched by both groups; complete with hand gestures…they finally called them to convene together.

"Okay," Willow began, "it seems both groups distrust each other. We can't work together to find our friend if there's no trust. So we're going to have a little 'show' to our 'tell', hopefully this will make things easier for us."

Maria continued. "Nothing leaves this room, no telling your friends, no bragging, no offensive bloodsucking jokes, Kyle. Understood?" Kyle nodded, with a small frown; he did have this _great_ vampire joke to tell.

"Okay cool. I'll go first -" Willow enthused. She just wanted everyone to get along. _No better than to lead by example I guess. _Shrugging, she focused her mind and energy on the pencil lying on the table close to them. With a small push she lifted it up 5 inches and spun it in the air. Then she slowly brought it towards her, letting it drop in her hand. "Was that okay?"

Dumbly, the pod squad nodded. "What about the supposed vampires of the group?" Michael asked, glaring specifically at Angel. _Ugh, Angel? I mean seriously what kind of name is that for a dude? And I do not like the way the Billy-Idol wannabe looks at My Maria. _

"Okay." Angel replied, and then let his face shift. Willow shivered. That face brought back many memories, some of them not as unpleasant as she thought. For instance, when he grabbed her in the school. _Mmm…_She smiled._ Pressed up against his tight muscles, feeling his erm... happiness at me being there too…_ Willow blushed as she realised she had been completely spacing. B_ad bad bad Willow. Focus. _

"Okay." Michael nodded, he would accept things if they were proved to him. "And you Blondie?" He nodded at Spike, while Xander snickered. Who knows, he might actually like this Michael guy.

"All you gotta do is ask." Spike winked at Maria and then let his true face shine through. "Happy?" Spike smirked as he watched Michael stand slightly in front of Maria, and nodded at Spike. Spike knew what the gesture meant; Michael was marking the small hot blonde as his, subtle moves which were universal between all species of males. He didn't mind, as much as the blonde looked quite tasty, he definitely preferred Brunettes. Feisty brunettes.

Faith smiled menacingly at Maria, she saw the looks Spike was giving the short blonde and did not appreciate it. "So now you show us yours."

Max stepped forward, melted the table into a pile of metal and then restored it. He stepped back beside Liz without a word, but trying very hard to suppress a grin at Xander's gobsmacked expression.

Tess stepped forward. "Um…okay don't freak but I'm going to make you see something that's not there...okay…" She frowned and then concentrated. All of a sudden Xander, Willow, Cordelia, Oz and Faith could see hundreds and hundreds of balloons filling the room, all different colours, shape and sizes. After a few seconds, the image was gone and Tess opened her eyes.

"Wow that's pretty neat." Willow smiled.

"What? I didn't bloody see anything!" Spike complained.

"Yeah me neither." Angel admitted quietly.

"That's...interesting…it must be because of your…err…non-human status. You both died. I guess that with Oz…who also isn't human but is more human than you two and also is living, that it would have affected him." Giles spoke up, after quietly watching with Jim.

"Huh so I guess the mind trick won't work on vamps. But it will be real handy with civilians right?" Xander asked.

"Yes I expect so." Giles said.

"What about you, _Michael?_" Spike grinned nastily. "Don't you wanna show us your powers too?"

Michael grimaced and once again saw Pierce hitting the wall, feeling the rage and fire of his power burn through him, wanting him dead. Then his body, so cold, so lifeless just lying on the floor. His hand was being squeezed. Slightly dazed, he looked down and saw Maria worriedly watching him. With a slight smile, he nodded at her, letting her know silently that he was alright. "I don't think that's a good idea." He said quietly to the room.

"Really? Why not?" Spike pressed on. He wasn't going to let this twat be so hostile to them, when he can't even prove that he's an alien.

"Because I blow stuff up! I don't think Mr…Giles here wants the library trashed!" Michael yelled and stalked off through the doors.

"Wow, is he always so…" Cordelia huffed.

Maria grinned. "All of the time." Then followed him out of the doors.

- - - - - - - -

Michael was pacing the hallway; he couldn't believe he'd just lost his cool like that. He knew the vampire was trying to bait him and he had just risen up and fucking took it. Taking a deep breath, he leaned against one of the school lockers, when he heard footsteps behind him. "Look Max, beat it, I don't want to hear a lecture about keeping the peace."

"It's not Max." Maria said quietly, putting her hand on his arm. "Are you okay?"

Michael spun around. _She came to see if I was alright,_ he realised. As he looked at the beauty before him, he felt his anger evaporate. "You shouldn't worry about me Maria." He mumbled.

"Don't tell me what I should and shouldn't do, Spaceboy. I will worry about you if I damn well please." She grinned, and hugged him.

Michael closed eyes, feeling the pinpricks of tears starting to build. Sighing, he breathed in her scent, it was something he could never place, something so uniquely Maria, something that felt like home. "Why do you?"

"Why do I what?" She stroked his back, trying hard to comfort the pain she felt radiating off him.

Michael felt his walls come crashing down at her touch. "Why do you worry? Why do you even bother with me Maria? I'm a killer. I'm just as bad as Pierce and I could hurt you too."

With a sharp gasp, she roughly pulled herself out of his embrace and grabbed his face with her two small hands. Making his eyes meet hers. While his whiskey-brown were filled with self-loathing and despair, her emerald green were filled with stubborn protective fire. "Don't _ever_ say that Michael. Don't ever _think _it. **You** are a good person; you saved Valenti from that creep. I love you Michael and will not let you hurt yourself over this. Okay?"

Michael dumbly nodded unable to express his shock. _She just said she loved me… She just said, to my face, that she loves me…Maria…Maria loves me…Maria Deluca, the beautiful vibrator, just said she loves ME…_

Her eyes widened as she suddenly realised what she let slip. Clapping a hand over her mouth, she groaned and silently berated herself, _oh my god, you're so stupid, so…so stupid. You just told him you love him idiot. You're scaring him away! Shit, wait…what if he didn't notice…_ With a hopeful glance, she looked at her unnaturally still, non-boyfriend. His eyes were wide and were staring right at her. _Shit. He did notice. And he's not saying anything. Quick, quick cover up Maria! Think of something!_

"I…I…I mean…"

Michael swooped in and crushed his lips against hers in desperation. He didn't want her to take it back. He didn't want to hear any excuses for what she had just said. Holding her face in his two hands, he desperately tried to convey every emotion he felt in the kiss. Maria gasped as she suddenly saw through his eyes.

Flash

_Maria in the alien costume, standing by her car. Shining like an untouchable beacon. Full of fear as she looked at him and saw a disgusting alien. _

Flash

_Maria coming up to him, talking about some History report. All he could stare at was her lips, inviting and soft, moving as she spoke. _

Flash

_Maria in the car, covering for him, his gratitude, his surprise, his annoyance at her being the only one who understood, yet utterly untouchable. He couldn't get attached. _

Flash

_Kissing Maria in the Heat wave. His first kiss. His desire and wonder at feeling her body against his. His possessive nature coming through, suckling on her neck, claiming her as his. _

Flash

_Maria giving him comfort after Hanks last beating. Love. Adoration. Loyalty. Security. Reverence as she wiped away his tears without comment._

Maria moaned into his mouth as his tongue did unspeakable things to hers. She ran her hands through his hair and felt herself collapsing as she felt everything he had ever felt when he was around her. "Oh my god Michael…"

"Mmm Maria…Maria I…I…oh Shit!" Michael dove and tried to catch her before she hit her head on the floor. "Shit Maria, speak to me? Are you okay?" Frantic, he tried fanning her face as she laid on his lap half-conscious. "Maria!"

Blinking. Maria opened her eyes to see a very worried Michael above her. "Michael?" She questioned. Then frowning, "what happened?"

"Well I was hoping you would tell me. One minute we're kissing, the next minute you're collapsing onto the freakin' floor. Now I know I'm good, but I don't think I've made a girl faint before…" Michael smirked as relief flooded him. Maria hit him lightly, then struggled to get up.

"I saw…I saw…" Blushing, she couldn't say what exactly she had seen. "Thank you Spaceboy."

Michael froze. _She saw what? What did she see? Did she get flashes? Shit. What if she saw Hank? No...she wouldn't be blushing like that if she saw those things. What could she see that would make her blush? _Michael was puzzled when it suddenly hit him. _Shit. Oh shit. I wanted her to know what I felt for her, without saying it, and now I've fucking did it. I bet she knows everything now. Shit. What if I scared her? _Quickly, he looked up at Maria. His breath caught. She was standing there, her hair slightly mussed, her lips swollen – looking so hot that it should be illegal, and her eyes burning with love. Love for him.

"What…exactly…did you see?" He asked deliberately. He had to be sure. His heart was pounding so loud he was sure the vampires in the next room could hear it.

"I…um…I…" Maria stuttered. Taking a deep breath she looked him squarely in the face, "I saw me. I felt what you felt when you're with me. I saw how you see me…and I have never seen myself like that. I looked…beautiful. Thank you Michael" She said softly, tears pooling in her eyes.

Trembling slightly at the raw emotions he felt, he pulled her in for a hug and kissed her forehead. Maria smiled as she heard his heart beating twice as fast, knowing hers was doing the same.

"No problem. We better get inside though; I bet they're still yammering on about the situation rather doing anything about it." Michael said and walked towards the doors, her hand clutched in his.

tbc...


End file.
